I have been a resident of Hamden for 52 years and I found the article in the Nov. 4 New Haven Register a slap in the taxpayers’ face that Quinnipiac University has gifted a check in the amount of $500,000 to the town of North Haven and will continue to do so each year going forward. Quinnipiac might pay taxes on the single-family homes that the college owns in Hamden, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out it’s not the same rates the rest of Hamden taxpayers are paying for their homes. Plus Quinnipiac is still thinking about tearing down the historical houses that are on Whitney Avenue in the Mount Carmel area which the college owns. They would like to build a small strip of businesses geared toward the college students. If this strip mall goes through, because it is owned by the college, for use by the college, they will not pay any property taxes on those properties. The historical houses aren’t being taxed right now as they are considered part of the educational system.

Quinnipiac, please let Hamden “benefit” from you being a large chunk of our small town and gift us also with a yearly check. It would make the taxpaying woes of Hamden easier to deal with and we might just have our property values go back up again. Quinnipiac has caused our taxes in Hamden to go through the ceiling. The legislature decided that we the people of Hamden would prefer to just get the tax monies of the college-owned homes, than to get money each year from the college. I don’t remember voting on that. Call me crazy, but if Quinnipiac paid the town of Hamden a yearly check and also paid the full property taxes on college-owned single-family homes, wouldn’t that help all of Hamden? It would be a win-win. The taxpayers would get some much needed tax relief and there wouldn’t be so much animosity against the college and its off-campus students.